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How to calm a crying baby

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Current rating: 4 from 3 votes.

Not sure why your baby won't stop crying? Try these tips.

Household tip type: Baby

There’s nothing more frustrating than when your newborn just won’t stop crying… You’ve changed their nappy and fed them and made sure that they’re as comfortable as possible, but nothing helps. Most people write this off as colic, said to be related to digestive issues in newborns. However, Dr Harvey Karp, a paediatrician and associate professor of paediatrics at the University of California’s School of Medicine, believes that this crying is related to the fact that the baby needs the calming reassurance it had in the womb, while it acclimatizes to being in the outside world.

In order to simulate the womb, Dr Karp suggests the 5 S’s.

Swaddling: Wrap your baby tightly in a blanket with their arms at their sides to recreate the snug fit they had in your womb. Make sure that they aren’t getting too hot. They may initially cry even harder at this treatment but continue with the process until they are calm.

Side or Stomach: While supporting their heads, turn them either on their left side to aid in digestion or onto their stomachs. This is the position they would have taken in your womb. When a baby is on their backs they can feel disorientated which will make them cry more.

Shushing: Inside your womb your baby would have been entertained by sounds 24 hours a day. The gurgling of your stomach and beating of your heart creates white noise or background noise which your baby would have found comforting. Outside your womb sounds can seem too harsh and silence too lonely. Make calming “shhh” noises louder than their cries until they calm down.

Swinging: By gently rocking or swinging your baby you are simulating the movement they would have felt in your womb. Use a sling, dance or use a ball to help with this gentle movement to calm your baby.

Sucking: Sucking stimulates a calming reflex in your baby so give them something to suck on like a dummy, your finger or your breast.

Just one of these steps may calm your crying baby, or you might need the whole process. Just persist until you find the right combination.